For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

    Those who refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and ignore all attempts to point them out will end in poverty and disgrace. Those who respond to criticism by changing their ways will be honored. Everybody enjoys seeing their dreams come true, but fools are unwilling to change in order to obtain them.

    The first few verses of today’s psalm are a continuation of the praise of God found in yesterday’s psalm. Then it goes on to speak of God’s promise to King David. However, there is actually a little more to it than just that. This psalm describes how any ruler can gain God’s support (or lose it). Those who obey God’s commands and keep His decrees will find their power and authority expanding. Those who do not do so will find themselves the subject of God’s judgment.

    After being asked yet another trick question by the religious leaders, Jesus asks one of His own. Reading it today, I just realized what Jesus was getting at with His question about the Messiah being the son of David. He was telling us that we can get too caught up in setting up rules and reading into what a passage means. Jesus tells us that those who study the Scripture and claim they have all the answers are hypocrites. He warns us to be wary of those who twist the words of Scripture in order to sound pious and praiseworthy, while using their position and authority to defraud those who already have little.

    The tribes who lived east of the Jordan responded to the concerns of the rest of the Israelites over the altar they had built. They acknowledged that the concern raised by the other tribes was a legitimate concern. They told the other tribes that if they had intended what the other tribes thought they intended the other tribes would be right to make war against them. Then they explained their actions. They explained that they had built the altar as a reminder to the other tribes that those east of the Jordan were their brothers in serving God. They had built the altar in order to maintain the unity of future generations of Israel.